Curcumin promotes programmed cell death in multidrug-resistant human lung cancer cells. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Curcumin promotes apoptosis in A549/DDP multidrug-resistant human lung adenocarcinoma cells through an miRNA signaling pathway.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2010 Aug 13;399(1):1-6. Epub 2010 Jul 11. PMID: 20627087
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China. [email protected]
Curcumin extracted from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa L. has been shown to have inhibitory effects on cancers through its anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. Emerging evidence demonstrates that curcumin can overcome drug resistance to classical chemotherapies. Thus, the mechanisms underlying the anti-tumor activities of curcumin require further study. In our study, we first demonstrated that curcumin had anti-cancer effects on A549/DDP multidrug-resistant human lung adenocarcinoma cells. Further studies showed that curcumin altered miRNA expression; in particular, significantly downregulated the expression of miR-186 * in A549/DDP. In addition, transfection of cells with a miR-186 * inhibitor promoted A549/DDP apoptosis, and overexpression of miR-186 * significantly inhibited curcumin-induced apoptosis in A549/DDP cells. These observations suggest that miR-186 * may serve as a potential gene therapy target for refractory lung cancer that is sensitive to curcumin.